Understanding Millenials Through The Concepts Of Empathy, Authenticity, And Purpose

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Understanding Millenials through the concepts of Empathy, Authenticity, and Purpose
In our modern society, studies show that millenials are among the largest portions of population and significantly, they are less empathic than their predecessors and previous generations. It is generally theorized that millenials are like that because they are from a generation that was raised to prioritize their individual needs and always think about themselves first. In many literature and popular beliefs, millenials are called as the “ME generation” due to their belief and behavior of prioritizing their own sense of security and need. From a young age, millenials are usually brought up by their parents in a way that subconsciously programs them to believe that they are privileged and special. Through this, they are able to gain an impressive sense of self confidence at the cost of not learning the practical skills and social interaction that garner true recognition and respect. Some psychologists say that too much of unearned praise make the millenials incapable of truly gaining knowledge and skill that makes them fit in the world of adults and the system of the cultural and interacting society. A well respected doctor, Dr. Konrath theorized that a rise in social and cultural isolation is directly responsible for the decrease of empathic abilities of millenials. In the United States of America, varying norms of living and new forms of lifestyles can be blamed to the decline of mental health and social interaction of millenials such that there is a rising trend of living alone making them susceptible to less social interaction and feelings of belongingness. Through it, millenials are not getting the chance of learning to adjust individual attitude and behavior toward other people. CITATION Cha16 \l 1033 (Baker)
To expound the ideas of this composition, let us first define empathy and how it is essential to our society especially in the modern setting where millenials are the dominant majority of the population. According to the psychological definition, empathy is the ability to relate to other people’s feelings by knowing the feeling of another through their point of view. It is simply putting oneself in the shoes of another and analyzing what they are feeling through that person’s certain perspective. A study by the University of Michigan, headed by Dr. Sara Konrath, has recorded a significant decline of empathic abilities of college students since the year 2000. CITATION Joe13 \l 1033 (Stein) In the research, the team analyzed the psychological capabilities and societal skills of about 14,000 students and observed how their scores varied through the years. The test was made in the year 1979 and the analysis show that almost ¾ of the subjects reported that they feel that they are less empathic when compared to the average scores of students 30 years prior. CITATION The16 \l 1033 (The Open Forest Team) In this sense, there is a question being begged to be answered: What is causing this decline of empathy in the members of Generation Y, or Millenials?
In other scientific studies made in the recent decades, many assumptions rise when it comes to the search for the answer to the question, and most of it revolves around the concept of how we as a society are consuming and utilizing information. The technological advancements of the recent decades have drastically changed the setting for many of our lifestyles and ways such as communication, transportation, and shopping. This puts a pressure on the economy, the culture, and the societal modes of interaction such that it puts the attention to detail at a subpar level away from true intimacy with the people and the moment. One concrete example that is correlated to human empathy is the practice of reading. In a study by psychologists at Toronto’s York University, it was found that there is an undeniable correlation to reading and being empathic. Raymond A. Mar, the leading psychologist of this specific study, found out that the stories’ contents that people read greatly alters their ability to relate to other people’s emotions and that the more stories and the more complex stories get, people who read those are more likely to demonstrate a higher comprehension of how other people feel. Another observation was that the people who read the genre of fiction was correlated to be more inclined to empathy. CITATION The16 \l 1033 (The Open Forest Team)
Yet another theory is that millennials have been desensitized by violent media content. It seems that from the nightly news to television shows and movies, violence is a part of life. Whatever the reason, GenMe seems to lack much of the basic empathy that previous generations thought was human nature. Whether it is a true lack of empathy or simply that they are misunderstood depends on your point of view. It has even been said that those who accuse them of being less empathetic are in fact showing a lack of empathy themselves. CITATION Fro17 \l 1033 (Frontify)
There are various factors that affect the behavior of millenials, and one other leading theory in the observation that millenials are lacking empathy can be perceived in the desensitization of acts of cruelty and violence by the mass media. More and more media content nowadays depict violence and acts of evil as normal and as acceptable. In the most popular movies of Hollywood, no movie is complete without action through violent fight scenes, gore, and sex. The contents that are shown in the television and a large portion of available content in the internet depict violence as a normal part of life, coupled with hypersexuality and objectification of the body and an undeniable addiction to materialism. CITATION Kar14 \l 1033 (Moore) This diminishes the value of life and the mysteries and excitement of intimacy and curiosity. The modern society has a higher expectation and demands a more serious tone of change from the members of the Millenial population. The world needs more drastic changes in its systems and social set-ups that are being pushed into the responsibility of the younger generations. “Generation Me” seems to lack the capabilities of emotional relating that are considered basic and common by the previous generations. It is still unclear whether millenials are taken in a bad light and misunderstood by society or if they really do have behavioral obstacles that hinder them from expressing their own solutions to whatever they are undergoing through in their everyday lives and the larger reality of society. CITATION Ray10 \l 1033 (Williams)
A supporting research made by the Nielsen/Norman group states that millenials’ activity in the World Wide Web is affecting their real life interactions and general life decisions. They have observed that millenials usually tend to be uninterested or lazy in the normal things that older people deem important or significant such as societal changes and global news. A trend found among the computer and cyber activities of millenials showed that most young people nowadays spends the first few minutes of comp...